this is wjz tv baltimore. >> from the city to the counties to your neighborhood, now it's complete coverage.

it's wjz, maryland's news station. daytona debris, crews race to fix security fences before one of nascar's biggest races, tonight the latest on the accident that left spectators injured. good evening, everyone. thanks for joining us. i'm adam may. a bittersweet day in florida one day after a wreck sends car debris flying into the stands. several fans were rushed to the hospital. >> reporter: jimmy johnson took the checkered -- jimmie johnson took the checkered flag at the 55th running of the daytona 500, but all eyes were on danica patrick, the first woman to lead for a full lap at nascar's biggest race. she stayed near the front of the pack but eventually fell back. as she prime ministered to take the wheel, patrick was laser focused. during the week she had the fastest qualifying time. at the starting line patrick got a nod from actor james franco. >> drivers and danica, start

your engines! >> reporter: it's been a dramatic week at the track. 33 fans were injured saturday during the final lap of another race. a car flew into the fence sending a tire and debris into stands. 14 fans were taken to the hospital. two remain there with serious but stable injuries. workers repaired the fence in time for today's race. >> 28 fans and one driver were injured in that wreck yesterday. nascar officials are reexamining track security fences to see if improvements need to be made. more attorneys prepare to file lawsuits, the scandal surrounding a johns hopkins gynecologist who police say secretly videotaped his patients now grows. wjz is live, derek valcourt with more on the legal challenges in this case. >> reporter: at the heart of this case is the question that all of those former parents are now asking themselves. am i one of the people in those videos? attorneys are preparing for an

onslaught of lawsuits as hundreds of former parents come forward worried they were the victims -- patients come forward worried they were the victim of the ultimate invasion of privacy by their gynecologist, dr. nikita levy. >> i just can't believe it. >> this is shocking. >> reporter: dr. levy apparently took his own life days after a fellow employee reported suspicious behavior. police say levy used a small video camera hidden in a pen to record some of the images. directives seized computers and equipment but say they now have a mountain of evidence to comb through. many of levy's former patients now plan legal action against his estate and the prestigeous hospital he worked for. >> i think this is something that johns hopkins is going to want to do everything that they possibly can to put it behind them. >> reporter: attorney william bowie, iii says the case poses some challenges including trying to prove which of levy's hundreds of patients were recorded and then reporting to a judge the patients actually suffered because of it. >> i'm sure the way the lawsuit will go will be that the patients will simply argue

whether or not they can prove their own videotape or not is that the mental anguish and pain that was caused simply by potentially being one of these individuals that was videotaped should be good enough to entitle them to compensation. >> reporter: for its part johns hopkins has declined to comment on any specific citing the pending litigation, but they do say that any invasion of a patient's privacy is intolerable. derek valcourt, wjz eyewitness news. in other news we're learning more about a baltimore county councilman charged with drunk driving. according to report, councilman todd huff said don't you know who i am when officers pulled him over in towson saturday morning. he also suggested that police drive him home instead of administering field sobriety tests. officers say huff was driving without headlights. his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit. tonight is he charged with dui and negligent driving. now to anne arundel where a

dirt bike accident lands a young boy in the hospital it. happened yesterday on friendship road near deal. the 12-year-old was illegally riding a dirt bike in the street when he pulled into the path of a van. police say the van and the bike collided pinning the boy under the vehicle. that boy is expected to recover from his injuries, no charges filed in the case. a huge eyesore in north baltimore comes crashing down. bge implodes that old natural gas tank people have been driving by on interstate 83 for years. tonight gigi barnett explains the implosion will now help bge update its entire system. >> reporter: not many northwest baltimore neighbors saw this implosion of a bge gas tower this morning. but most of them heard it for sure. >> boom, boom, boom. >> reporter: for years drivers have seen the tank from i-83 near the cold spring exit. now it's gone for good. >> that tower has been there since i was a kid. it's been there for many, many years. >> reporter: 80 to be exact.

some neighbors like michelle clay recorded the implosion for themselves. >> it toppled like slightly towards the right and just came straight down. it was pretty cool, very cool actually. i've never been that close to it. >> reporter: bge says it was time to get rid of the old gas tank just sitting empty for years costing the company. >> it's very expensive for the upkeep of the building and so in essence it's just a building that isn't being used that we're putting money in to upkeep. >> reporter: bge says it coordinated with the police and fire departments and even sent notices to neighbors. the company says it didn't want the blast to take anyone by surprise. >> when was it at? >> reporter: friends dina fritz and jennifer magnezi slept through the blast. there's a good reason. >> we went to two birthday parties, so we missed pout. >> reporter: i'm gigi barnett, wjz, eyewitness news. >> that would be quite the alarm clock, thank you.

bge says upgrades to the regional natural gas system back in the 1990s made that tank obsolete. it has certainly been a long time, feels like weeks, but we finally saw some sunshine today, live look outside right now, the sun has set after almost some spring- like conditions. can we expect more of that tomorrow? i hope so. meteorologist bernadette woods live with an updated look at first warning live doppler radar. my dog loved it, laid in the sunshine by the windows all day today. >> it felt so good. we've got another day of that before another storm moves our way, but right now i want to show you temperatures around the region. we got to the upper 40s, 39 now in baltimore, 42 in d.c. just off to the north and west of us sort of the tail end of this storm system that moved through about a day and a half ago, there are some snow showers, a couple flurries that made their way down into frederick and carroll county. those are quickly dying aren't. they aren't going to amount to anything. skies will clear overnight.

then we'll turn our direction toward the southwest when another storm comes our way tuesday, more on that coming up in the forecast the stars will walk the red carpet this evening for the 85th annual academy awards. tonight bigad shaban reports with a preview of hollywood's biggest night. >> reporter: the red carpet is out and hollywood is ready for its biggest show, the oscars. fans like minnesota native sarah sullivan are outside the dolby theater trying to spot celebrities. >> it's like a once in a lifetime thing. >> reporter: lincoln leads the competition with 12 nominations including best picture and best actor for daniel day lewis. but argo has dominated the award season leading up to tonight. ben affleck did not get a nomination for best director, but krista smith, a senior editor at vanity fair, thinks that could help the cia drama win best picture. >> wait, he didn't get nominated? argo, so it kind of turned the

focus towards argo. >> reporter: emanuel riva who stars in the french film amour is already celebrating. she turns 86 today and is the oldest best actress ever. 9-year-old wallis is the youngest up against naomi watts for impossible, jessica chastain for zero park thirty and silver lining playgirl. producers promise a more fast paced show this year and plenty of singing and dancing. seth mcfarland will host the 85th annual show and barbara streisand and adele are just two big names expected to perform on stage, but the focus is on the 197 oscar nominees hoping to take home hollywood's most prestigeous award. bigad shaban, cbs news, hollywood. >> if daniel day lewis wins the oscar for best actor for his portrayal of president abraham

lincoln, he would become the first actor in history to win the award three times. he did have a spectacular performance in that movie. still to come tonight on wjz's eyewitness news, sounding off governor o'malley now pushing for a deal to avoid the upcoming sequester, what he's doing to help the negotiations. >> in hot water, why the brother of olympian oscar pistorius is also facing murder charges today, the stunning details coming up. >> complete coverage continues with adam may and meteorologist bernadette woods and sports with stan saunders. it's wjz, maryland's news station.

it's 39 degrees, partly cloudy in central maryland right now. bernadette's complete first forecast is coming up. mounting fears surrounding the fiscal crisis march 1st is the deadline, just days away for lawmakers to reach a deal to avoid $85 billion in automatic spending cuts. president obama says every american will feel the effect. there will be cuts to the military, the cdc will lose more than $300 million, even airport security will take a hit. now states are worrying about how it will affect them. maryland's governor spoke this morning on face the nation. >> this sequester stands to wipe out a lot of hard fought job gains in virginia and in maryland. so for whatever our differences might be we understand that this is an economic threat. >> republicans and democrats disagree how to cut the deficit and debt. republicans say taxes are off the table, but the president

says new revenue is a must. as olympian oscar pistorius faces murder charges, now we're learning his older brother is charged with killing a woman in south africa in a traffic accident five years ago. the case due to be tried next month is unpreallotted to the valentine's day shooting that -- unrelated to the valentine's day shooting that left oscar pistorius' girl friend dead. an emotional day at the vatican, catholics watched pope benedict give his final sunday address. [ cheering and applause ] >> the pontiff delivered his final blessing to tens of thousands from his apartment overlooking st. peter's square. he said he is not abandoning the church. rather he is retiring to spend his final years in prayer. the 85-year-old is stepping down thursday, the first pope to do so in almost 600 years, not since 1415, quite historic

moment for the catholic church. >> that's older than our country. >> feels like it's been that long since we saw sun. we saw it today. we get another day of sunshine tomorrow. so tomorrow will be nice and overall temperatures this week than bad, but we will have some cold -- aren't that bad, but we will have some cold temperatures again. 39 degrees outside. we'll have that full forecast detailing everything when we return.

from what i'm hearing today's weather was just enough that people want to say good- bye winter, just bring on spring. let's move on. >> can't quite do that yet. it is still february. >> every once in a while we get that surprise march blizzard, snowstorm. >> sometimes they pop up in march, so we're not quite finished yet, but the longer we go into march the less of an effect. even if there's a big storm,

they usually melt quickly. temperatures today, it was a beautiful one, we did manage a high of 50 degrees, the average 47. we've been below average a while, so we're back above average today. with that sun down we're 39 degrees right now. the wind has been gusting out of the northwest upwards of 40 miles per hour in some cases. that will back off tonight and temperatures are going to come down, but look at the wind gusts what it's brought in. some of those western counties, even in part of frederick and carroll county, a few flurries making their way down on those gusty northwest winds, but with the sun down all that will die down and the skies will clear overnight and set us up for a nice day tomorrow. we've got a break in the action before the next storm. here's the tail end of what came in friday leaving us. tomorrow high pressure in control and then the next storm moves our way. it's going to come into marginally cold air once again tuesday. so it could start as a mix before changing over to rain. in western parts of the state

this could be an icing situation, something we're going to have to pay attention to. here's how it breaks down. you can see the snow really confined to the north. here's that mix area. it does cut down into western parts of the state. for the most part this will be a rain event for us. since there is that chance for icing already we've seen winter storm watches issued, but they're not until tuesday that we'll be dealing with that. tomorrow winds turning north 5 to 10 knots and tonight skies clearing, 26 degrees for our low. tomorrow sunshine and we're going up to 48 degrees, so a pretty comfortable afternoon. then tuesday that's when our storm arrives, a mix to start possible, but for the most part this will be in the form of rain as we get back into the 40s. then as it starts to full away we'll pop into sunshine for a while, then the clouds come back. in about 55 is where we'll spike to before the cold air comes in behind it. on thursday rain or snow showers are possible with the

cold air and remaining in the lower 40s as we start march. adam? >> thanks so much. stay with us.

stan, the sports report, orioles looking pretty good down at spring training. >> so far so good. i'm reminded of an old adage that says well begun is half the job done. get off to a good start, things can happen from there. our masn orioles spring training report from sunny sarasota, florida. after sliding past the twins 5- 3 the orioles won again today this time over a toronto blue

jays split squad. opposing starter mark buehrle brought to toronto in a blockbuster trade retired his first four batters before this guy was singled in. steve pierce stepped up and he made contact, two-run home run out of the park that. makes it 2-0 orioles. watch this great defense from ryan flaherty on his high horse at shortstop on the money, out at first base which meant bye bye buehrle because he got yanked. there was one run and two hits allowed over a pair of wings and the the birds win 5-4 over toronto. at today's daytona 500 following yesterday's horrendous turn of events that left some spectators with minor injuries, here's the last lap today, known 93 travis cassell hit the wall and not long afterwards jimmie johnson was your winner and dale earnhardt

came in second and baltimore ravens own ray lewis stood with him. now college basketball ladies style, tiana hawkins, nine boards, not enough on this given sunday for the university of maryland terrapins eighth in the country taking on no. 5 duke in college park. in the 2nd half elizabeth williams who led duke was too much to handle. terps are 22-6, 13-3 in the atlantic coast conference. elsewhere college men's lacrosse from johnny unitas stadium where the tigers against visiting mercer leaned on the polished skills of rod zappo putting the biscuit in the basket. his team scored the game winner late in overtime and that gave towson a victory, now 1-3. nfl now, baltimore lend me your ears. we entertain echos from the league combine in indy. dunbar high school all

american, west virginia all american kick returner take vonn tavon austin, clocked a 40-yard dash much faster than me. no doubt he's a deep threat. look at him catch that threat. vaton austin -- tavon austin in maryland, had a great four years with the mount nears in west virginia and -- mountaineers in west virginia and now they are likening him to be like maybe a wes welker. >> we'll be monitoring him for many years to come. be sure to tune in tonight at 10:00 on cbs. at 10:00 it's the good wife followed by wjz eyewitness news at 11:00. coming up at 11:00 the legal hurdles, some of the legal challenges in these cases

against johns hopkins. >> also a massive implosion, a baltimore eyesore comes crashing down. a lot of people didn't even know what this thing was. we'll tell you all about that. people have been driving by it on interstate 83 for years, those stories and more tonight on eyewitness news at 11:00. this looks like a lot of fun. they are throwing food in florida. about 1,000 people participated in the tomato fight festival in miami on saturday. you guys want in on this? >> i'm from miami. i provides a few of those. >> even covered in tomato sauce. 25,000 ripe tomatoes brought in for the event. for those unwilling to get sauced there's a safety zone set up for spectators to enjoy all the action. the tomato fight lasts about an hour. i would love to know how it long it takes to actually clean that up afterwards. a fan at today's san diego gonzaga game scores a big win.

check it out. a man hit the half court shot, got to see that one more time. love it when you go to these sporting events and they try these. 2,100 bucks. the reaction really says it all there, couldn't believe that he made the shot. he is now $2,100 richer. maybe he practiced that or just got lucky. >> not a bad night. >> either way 2,100 bucks,